General Dynamics plans to buy back 10M shares, which would cost $1.39B at current prices

Defense contractor General Dynamics said Monday that its board has authorized the company to buy back as many as 10 million shares of its stock, valued at about $1.39 billion at the end of last week.

The aerospace and defense company's shares have climbed 34 percent over the last 12 months and are trading close to all-time highs.

The Falls Church, Virginia-based company had about 332 million shares on the market as of Feb. 1. Its stock peaked at $146.13 in November.

But its shares fell $2.05, or 1.5 percent, to $137.24 in afternoon trading Monday.

General Dynamics Corp. reported a profit of $2.55 billion, or $7.42 per share, on $30.85 billion in revenue in 2014. The company said its backlog of contracts was worth $72.4 billion at the end of the year, up 58 percent from the end of 2013.